- Tom Brady,
he's never, at any point been the most talented guy.
When he was at Michigan,
he got beat out by a really talented guy named Drew Henson.
He didn't...
And then he went to the NFL
like never at any point has he out-talented anybody.
I just think he's been out-behaving everybody.
[upbeat music]
My name's Jordan Palmer,
I'm the founder of QB Summit,
former NFL quarterback,
and I'm a quarterback consultant.
I've had an opportunity to work with a ton
of great quarterbacks.
Some of 'em get drafted high,
some of 'em don't get drafted at all
but players like Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes,
there's been a lot of guys who've come through here
that are really notable names
throughout the college experience.
And then there's guys like Kyle Allen
who just recently signed a new contract
who an undrafted guy, not invited to the Combine.
And there's been a lot of guys who've been drafted
in middle to late rounds
that have been able to build a career.
And so it's been a blast to be able to
help them in that process
and help them continue to develop
throughout their NFL career.
And then right now
I've got an incredible group of young guys.
Desmond Ridder from Cincinnati,
third winning his college quarterback
in college football history.
Carson Strong from the Nevada,
kid from nowhere,
who's about to make a big splash in the NFL.
Jarrett Guarantano,
who's been overlooked the last few years,
who will no longer be overlooked
once he gets into the NFL.
I've been able to find a little niche
where I can help quarterbacks transition
from amateurs to pros in every sense of the term.
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I believe there's two and inevitabilities
with the quarterback position
and that's the inevitability of success and adversity,
that they're both coming.
So what I've tried to get really good at as a coach,
is helping people get good at handling adversity,
and get good at handling success,
'cause I've seen adversity be the thing
that ended somebody's career
but I've seen success be the thing that ended
somebody's career just as much.
When I look back at my past of helping these guys
through these different phases,
the conversation with Joe Burrow
before his senior year,
when he was sharing just how good he thought
this next year was gonna go, and why,
and the conviction in his voice,
that was...
I'm not gonna forget that.
Watching that season unfold
and then this year watching this unfold,
going to the Super Bowl outta nowhere, off an ACL.
And so, during the rehab process last March,
the first day he got cleared to throw,
I love being there at that low point
right before it's gonna tick out.
This was a hard year for Trevor Lawrence
coming off of,
I think he was 86 and four,
high school and college combined.
And then chaos that happened with the coaching staff
and the chaos that happened from losing,
and the chaos that...
That's the first low point really
that's been notable.
The inevitability of success and adversity,
those are the two things
that the best quarterbacks are good at handling both.
I believe that the greatest athletes
get behind behaviors
more than they get behind their talents.
And so if I can get a young quarterback
who...
It's not about working hard.
Working hard is a prerequisite,
that's not a badge of honor.
You better work hard
or this is not going to work well for you.
But the guys who get behind their behaviors
and are interested in developing better behaviors
better habits, better routines,
I can help 'em do that.
And it becomes the better your behaviors get,
the less it becomes about talent.
You offset it.
An example is Tom Brady.
Tom Brady, he's never at any point
been the most talented guy.
When he was at Michigan,
he got beat out by a really talented guy named Drew Henson.
He didn't...
And then he went to the NFL
like never at any point, has he out-talented anybody.
I just think he's been out behaving everybody.
What he does throughout the course of the year
We can make jokes about it,
reality is, is he's playing the best football
of his career right now, right?
He's not hanging on for another year,
he's coming back
for another chance to win a Super Bowl, MVP and league MVP.
I see a lot of this and this is a common conversation
with a lot of my...
The younger NFL players.
Joe Burrow is incredibly talented.
Against the other top quarterbacks where
he's ranked right now in the NFL,
he's not the most talented guy
but behavior wise he's, I would
however you rank it,
would be up there as one of the best behaviors
and the most consistent workers
and thoughtful workers
that we have in this league right now.
When it comes to assessing a quarterback,
there's the physical program I'll go through.
So the physical side, there's a whole kind of list
but my eye goes to two things,
whether it's a kid
or it's a draft pick or it's a new NFL client,
it goes to confidence and maturity.
I just think those are non-negotiables.
So confidence is the most important trait in a quarterback
but there's two types of confidence.
So there's reactionary confidence,
reactionary confidence is dependent on the environment.
Everybody says, "I'm awesome."
I believe them.
Everybody says, "I'm a bum."
I wonder if they're right,
and it's exhausting, okay.
It's very fatiguing.
Then there's self-generated confidence
which is opinion of the environment.
It does not matter what the situation is,
what people say about that situation.
It doesn't matter how it's been going,
it matters what happens next and there's complete confidence
in that moment and it's unwavering.
So when I find a quarterback who has unwavering
self-generated confidence, I go, "Okay."
And then the second one is maturity,
and maturity is not
tucking in your shirt and showing up on time
and saying, "Yes, sir."
"Yes, ma'am."
Maturity is being able to be in a situation
you've never been in before and being able
to be poised and thoughtful and present
to make fantastic decisions
and be in complete composure.
So when I meet somebody who's good
at those two things I can teach, 'em how to throw it better.
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Draft training is essentially three months.
We start right at the beginning of January,
I rent a beach house,
I put 'em up there.
We're throwing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
and a little bit on Saturday,
so it's four and a half days of throwing.
All the lifting is done by Naomi Talbot.
Mike White, he's my movement specialist,
so he's working on very simple,
fundamental human body movement.
And the last piece is physical therapy.
Motus is the best physical therapists
that I've ever worked with.
And then the last piece
that I really do on the human side of it
is I work with a guy named Tommy Rodriguez.
Tommy, who's got a therapy background,
they share their purpose statement
and it's about really understanding what their gifts are,
and I've seen that phase
in some cases be the most beneficial part
of working with me.
And then I bring in vets,
so Kyle Allen this year
who just signed with the Houston Texans,
handled protections,
all the blocking assignments.
Bring him in,
bring a guy who's playing right now to do that
and pour into these young guys
as they head into the NFL.
I'm trying to expedite the process
of them becoming a pro.
I'm honestly not gonna get 'em drafted higher,
their tape is it's gonna get them drafted or not drafted.
I'm gonna clean up their mechanics
and I'm gonna help 'em the interview process
but everything is just helping them become a pro, faster,
and a pro isn't based off how many touchdowns you've thrown,
it's based off how you act.
I'm trying to manufacture an appropriate entry point
for them into professional football,
and the more things that they show up there
and it's brand new, the harder.
So the more things I can expose them to, remove the newness,
the faster they can play,
the quicker they can retain information
and the more confident they can be.
So in terms of exposing them,
the way you watch tape in college
and the types of defenses you play against
like from a scheme standpoint,
are very, very different than the NFL.
It's significantly more complex,
there's a lot more different possibilities that can come,
and then the difference between different coverages are
disguised much better in the NFL.
What we do is, we get access to NFL game tape.
I give them a program where
when you're in the NFL and you're playing quarterback,
you have to have your own film study program for the week.
So I'm gonna fly through this,
base pressures on last Monday,
you watch the last five games,
Tuesday, base pressures, Wednesday, sub pressures,
Thursday, third down, Friday, red zone,
Saturday, I usually tell 'em
to watch a highlight tape by themselves,
but there's a program you need to go through
when you get into the NFL.
So whether you train with me or not,
you're gonna do that when you get there.
So what we do, it's January during draft training,
we break, we assign a different defense each week,
the NFL playoffs is happening
and we prepare as if we're playing that team.
Each quarterback has a different defense.
Monday, they watch the last five games,
Tuesday, base pressures, Wednesday, sub,
Thursday, third down, Friday, red zone.
They go through that program all the way
through the Super Bowl.
So they get four weeks
of watching and preparing to play against that defense
and we rotate every week, and every single week
by the time they're...
And they're presenting in front of the room and sharing,
and here's what the Buffalo Bills are trying to do
on third and six.
Then they get exposed to all these coverages,
they get exposed to everything that happened in the playoffs
which is every...
It's the best team's best stuff.
And so if I can remove that newness,
just on how to watch tape as a quarterback in the NFL,
that's one less new thing that they have
when they get there.
I think part of the appeal
and why players choose to work with me
is honestly how real I keep it.
This is hard.
NFL quarterback,
by the time you make it to the NFL,
there's so much hard stuff you've had to deal with,
and so the quarterbacks who think
that this is gonna be really fun and really easy,
and if they're just really talented,
if they just make plays, it'll solve the problems,
or if I just make a ton of money
all my problems will go away,
you're just wrong.
That's not how this works.
I just don't lie to these kids and tell 'em
that if they just work on this, it'll all get better.
No, you have to be all in and you need to be quarterback
in every single phase of your life.
You had any young athletes who are watching this
and you're not really sure if you're all in
and you, kind of, like it but not really,
then just enjoy sports and that's super fun.
Don't lie to yourself
that this is gonna become a career, right?
But if you are all in, this has a lot more to do
with your behaviors and your routines than your talents.
That has much more to do with that pursuit
and the behaviors than it does, how talented you are at 16.
Thanks GQ for coming and hanging out.
Hopefully you can take something
from this conversation and add it to your game.
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